Mardi Gras Film Festival 2025 Audience Award Winners

As Queer Screen’s 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival comes to a close after fifteen wonderful days of screenings and events, it’s time to announce the winners of our Audience Awards.

This year’s festival was all about sharing the love, of queer cinema and community, and these films represent the stories our community loved the most. With 143 LGBTIQ+ films screening across 64 unique programs – 52. features and 91 shorts – there were plenty of opportunities to come together and fall in love with something new.

If you missed out on catching these films on the big screen, don’t fret! There’s still a chance to catch some of the winners as part of our On Demand encore, with 13 features and 85 shorts available Australia-wide from 28 February–10 March! And as part of MGFF on Tour in the Blue Mountains (22-23 March) and Canberra (3-5 April).

But without further ado, this year’s winners are…

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

Winner: Crossing

Levan Akin’s exquisite follow-up to And Then We Danced (MGFF20) explores the vibrant trans and queer community of Istanbul. Retired Georgian teacher Lia promised her dying sister she would find her runaway trans niece, Tekla. Boisterous neighbour Achi offers to accompany Lia to Türkiye to find Tekla, but their search seems in vain – until they meet trans lawyer Evrim, who introduces them to a whole other side of the city.

Screening on tour in Canberra on Friday 4 April. Book your tickets here.

Runner Up: What a Feeling

A heartfelt romantic comedy about chance encounters, culture, community and reinvention, exploring what it’s like for two middle-aged women to finally live life for themselves for the very first time.

2nd Runner Up: The Paradise of Thorns

Grief, love and loss clash as Thongkam fights against unjust laws and scheming relatives to reclaim his home and durian orchard, and the life he built with his late partner.

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Winner: I’m Your Venus

Whilst filming legendary ballroom documentary Paris Is Burning, one of its iconic trans stars was murdered. Thirty-five years since Venus Xtravaganza’s tragic death, her two families – biological and ballroom – unite to honour her legacy and seek justice. Old wounds are reopened as her case is reexamined, amidst a fight to posthumously amend her birth certificate. Overflowing with love, this cathartic documentary is a moving ode to Venus and the power of community.

Runner Up: Unusually Normal

Seven women, three generations, one family – and countless secrets. Meet Canada’s Gayest Family, including Sydney expat Janice Moore, as they share their journeys from hidden relationships to proudly living their truth.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March. Book your tickets here.

2nd Runner Up: Sally!

Sally! invites you to celebrate the fiery and passionate life of Sally Gearhart, a bold activist whose vision shaped the queer and feminist social justice movement through humour and tenacity.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March. Book your tickets here.

Audience Award for Best Sapphic Short

Winner: Old Lesbians

For the last quarter century, retired schoolteacher Arden Eversmeyer journeyed from Houston across the country to record hundreds of oral “herstories” with a mostly invisible population that is rapidly disappearing. Old Lesbians honours Arden’s legacy by animating the resilient, joyful voices she preserved in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March with the feature Lesvia. Book your tickets here.

Runner Up: The History of the Carabiner

A tongue-in-cheek, historical documentary that takes viewers on a journey through queer history to trace the origins of the carabiner as a lesbian symbol.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Sapphic Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Screening on tour in Canberra on Saturday 5 April as part of Best of Sapphic Shorts. Book your tickets here.

2nd Runner Up: Roses

As her daughter throws an 18th birthday party, single mother Rosa unexpectedly finds herself spending an evening out alone, when she finds herself on an impromptu date.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March. Book your tickets here.

Screening on tour in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 22 March (book your tickets here) and in Canberra on Saturday 5 April (book your tickets here).

Audience Award for Best Gay Short

Winner: Body of Christ

When Pablo stumbles into church for the very first time, he decides to become an altar boy to spend more time with the beautiful Sebastián. But it’s hard to compete with Jesus for his attention – after all, he’s super hot.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Gay Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Runner Up: One Day This Kid

Seven women, three generations, one family – and countless secrets. Meet Canada’s Gayest Family, including Sydney expat Janice Moore, as they share their journeys from hidden relationships to proudly living their truth.

Screening on tour in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 22 March (book your tickets here) and in Canberra on Saturday 5 April (book your tickets here).

2nd Runner Up: Qeluar (Out)

Expelled from Malaysia due to his sexuality, Warren recounts a journey marked by ousting, disownment and the quest for acceptance, as the first person to successfully claim asylum in the UK on the grounds of LGBTIQ+ identity.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Asia-Pacific Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Audience Award for Best Bi+ Short

Winner: Baby Gay

Desperate to prove her bisexuality, Stevie bluffs her way into her first threesome with two women thinking she’ll figure it out when she gets there. She does not figure it out when she gets there.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Bi+ Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Runner Up: Friend of a Friend

Jules is bi. Bi as in bisexual. Bi, even though he’s only slept with women. Bi and ready to try his first experience with Samuel – a friend of a friend.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Bi+ Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Screening on tour in Canberra on Saturday 5 April (book your tickets here).

2nd Runner Up: Keep It Open

A woman’s relationship with her polyamorous bisexual partner is tested when they run into the boyfriend who’s visiting from out of town, when she’s used to him being out of sight and out of mind.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Bi+ Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Audience Award for Best Trans & Gender Diverse Short

Winner: Boys in the Water

On a weekend retreat to his grandparents’ beachside house with some friends, his first time back in his childhood home since coming out, Oscar’s world is turned on his head when he encounters another trans man on the beach and experiences an unexpected attraction.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of T4T Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Runner Up: Dragfox

Sam’s search for identity gets interrupted by a mysterious neighbourhood fox, voiced by Ian McKellen. Together they embark on a magical journey to discover the surprising things they might have in common, and how to celebrate their differences.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Trans & Gender Diverse Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Screening on tour in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 22 March (book your tickets here) and in Canberra on Saturday 5 April (book your tickets here).

2nd Runner Up: Holy Curse

During a visit to India, 11-year-old Radha grapples with their gender identity as their family subjects them to manipulative orthodox rituals, believing these will dispel an alleged ancestral curse affecting Radha’s thoughts.

Screening On Demand Australia-wide from Friday 28 February – Monday 10 March as part of Trans & Gender Diverse Shorts. Book your tickets here.

Screening on tour in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 22 March (book your tickets here) and in Canberra on Saturday 5 April (book your tickets here).